Christian Parenting Blog

This is the first post in a series I’m starting called “Letters For Christian Armour”. Read what this is about here.
Dear Children,
One of the most common misconceptions you’ll run into in life is that Christianity is mostly (if not entirely) about doing or being good. Non-believers often minimize the difference between Christians and those who do good things. It is really important that you understand why this is a fundamental misunderstanding of our faith.
You Read More...

In my post “Should You Raise Your Kids in a Christian Bubble,” I talked about the difference between wearing a Christian “hat” in life and wearing Christian “armour”. In this analogy, a Christian “hat” is when Christianity is just a belief system attached to you but not at the core of your identity. The Bible calls us, however, to find our entire identity in Christ and to protect our faith as strongly as a soldier preparing for war with full armour (Ephesians 6:10-17):
“…Therefore Read More...

There is something about Friday that makes it the worst day of the week for me. It should be the best day - our family’s weekend is Friday and Saturday due to my husband’s work schedule, so I should be celebrating the first day of weekly rest and relaxation.
Oh wait, that’s the problem. I’ve somehow never let go of the notion that the weekend means rest and relaxation. I have three kids ages three and under. They aren’t more independent, better behaved, less likely to fight or Read More...

If you read my “About Me” page, you’ll see that my mission as a mom is to raise my kids in a home where faith means more than going to church on Sunday. Indeed, that is the whole purpose of this blog – to help inspire others to think deeply about what that means for their own families and to pursue the same mission.
I proactively seek to apply faith every single day for my kids, to surround their hearts and minds with God. But in doing so, I sometimes have wondered: Am I building Read More...

My son Nathan wasn’t feeling well recently so we all prayed together for him to feel better. The next night at prayer time, Kenna pointed out that we prayed for him already but he wasn’t feeling better. She had a look of simultaneous confusion and disappointment on her face. In a total of about 3 seconds I had the thought that this is the beginning of a lifetime of seeking to understand why God does or does not answer certain prayers AND replied, “We’ll keep praying and trust God that Nathan Read More...

I have been a compulsive nail biter since I was 3 years old. I can remember family members offering a vast array of rewards for growing my nails ever since I was very small. As an adult, there have been times I was able to stop for weeks or even a few months at a time. But I always started again. Every January 1st starts with a new resolution to stop, but I have never been successful.
I had a revelation about my inability to stop biting my nails recently. Biting my nails is only an outward Read More...

A reader of this blog posed this question on the Facebook page, because her boys – ages 10, 12 and 15 – are uninterested in church. It’s a very important question that I wanted to address with this post.
At the risk of trivializing the question itself, I’m going to offer a brief rationale for my own answer and then provide an alternative question which I think is more at the heart of the issue.
A home is like a microcosm of society. There are laws (requirements for living there) and Read More...

[NOTE: This post is 4 years old but continues to receive a large number of visitors from Google searches on teaching kids about faith. A lot has happened here on the blog since I wrote this--including having the opportunity to write a book that was released in March 2016 by Harvest House Publishers: Keeping Your Kids on God's Side: 40 Conversations to Help Them Build a Lasting Faith! If you're here because you're looking for resources to help you effectively raise your kids to follow Jesus in the Read More...